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Lopez de Heredia Rosado 2000

by Hugh Acheson

on 05/30/12 at 01:00 PM

Lopez de Heredia is a very special estate when it comes to the world of wine. Founded in 1877 after Europe was recovering from being plundered by the phylloxera louse, Heredia built quickly to fill a void.

Phylloxera didn't maul Spain the way it did the mainland, so there was vast opportunity to grow in the libations world. After more than a hundred years, the winery is now regaled as pretty much the best Rioja producer out there. When I think Rioja, I think earthy complexity, an antiqued homage to Tempranillo, an ode to a forgotten time in wine when the aim wasn't 15 percent alcohol and thick dark stuff. Rather, Riojas possess an elegance that in the right way more reminds me of Burgundy than of the rest of Spain.

We all can revel in the reds through the line (just had the 1985 Tondonia Rioja Red last week...yummypants), and they excel at whites but when in your life will you have a rosé with 12 years of age on it?

The 2000 vintage of Lopez de Heredia Vina Tondonia Rosado Gran Reserva (it's a mouthful of a name) is the wine at hand, and I was lucky enough to try it again recently. We have it on a couple of lists at the restaurants and have had some wine dinners with the Heredia family but this was a different night. This was a night with rosé to pair with some tacos, and that's what I did. Corn tortillas, pulled pork, spicy salsa, cilantro, lime, and queso fresco.

The age of the wine is the first thing that woos you. It's an expensive proposition to keep a wine in inventory this long before selling it. Costly and rare that it is, Heredia holds back vintages longer than pretty much anyone I know in the wine world. They are sticklers for showing off how their wines can age and releasing them when they think they should be drunk.

This stunning rosado is a trilogy of grapes, with Garnacha taking the starring role, aided in the scene by Tempranillo and Viura. It is aged in barrel for 4 1/2 years and then held in bottle for a while longer before release. Most of the world views rosé as a treat to drink young, and I wouldn't normally disagree, but the Heredia attention to detail makes this a thoroughly wondrous thing, and not just an oddity.

Coppery and full bodied, it's one of those wines that if it was a touch warmer in the glass and you were blindfolded, most of you (and me) would have a hard time picking it as a rosé. It has the feel of a chilled gamay or pinot.

This is super dry in such a beautiful way. I would also pair it with something spicy like Szechuan food. This wine would transform a takeout dinner into something magical, like the time I had a 1982 Mission Haut Brion with a burger...can't go wrong there.

The sad things is that they only make the rosé when they think it's really stellar. I guess there were some not so great vintages in the past decade and the next vintage (2005) is not being released until something like 2017. I will be waiting.